Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Woodstock Essay

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Poquette has a bachelor's degree in English and specializes in writing about literature. In the following essay, Poquette discusses Alexie's use of point of view to underscore the message of cultural struggle in "Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Woodstock."

In her article about Alexie for Ploughshares, Lynn Cline notes: "His work carries the weight of five centuries of colonization, retelling the American Indian struggle to survive, painting a clear, compelling, and often painful portrait of modern Indian life." As a modern Native-American child, Victor, the narrator, feels the effects of this colonization, too. Like most children, Victor relies on the examples set by his parents to provide him with the cultural instruction he needs to survive in the world. Unfortunately, his parents represent two extremes, making it difficult for him to form any solid...